A decent work month, most notably getting some work forward on our last 2 non-unique weapons and some bridged function. But moreover, we've done a lot of work with AI this month with exciting, competitive new features.
Let's throw the big, juicy steak in the spotlight first. This month we turned some deeply desired ideas for AI competency into realities. This are fun, and I'd love to have demos on this soon.
-Speaking of which, we added a competency variable! This ranges most often 1-3, sometimes 1-5, and up to 1-10 in case we wanna do something fun with some stuff later. More competency adds new moves and abilities to an NPC's catalog and modifies how well they use existing tricks up their sleeves.
*0 Competency demonstrates the individual in question has very little combat experience and instincts.
*1 Competency demonstrates at least a bit of quick thinking, and they will attempt to dodge projectiles headed towards them. NOTE: As it turns out, Deus Ex NPC's suck at identifying oncoming projectiles by default, so we'll need to install a faster, smarter way for them to ID incoming threats.
*2 Competency demonstrates the individual has some formal conditioning and training of some sort. These individuals can be expected to utilize sprinting for set durations, do a bit of hopping around to stay less predictable, and generally have some more advanced tactics.
*3 Competency individuals demonstrate the highest level of tactical understanding, and will use a few odder moves, such as jumping around corners in a surprise ambush vs rounding them in a typical fashion.
*5 Competency individuals are HIGHLY agile. More competency directly feeds into quicker cooldowns for various maneuvers, more resistance to encumbrance, and may even do some REALLY whacky stuff, such as perform large leaps to close melee range when using melee weapons.
-Added a variable for defensive nature. It can range from 0.0 to 1.0, with odds factoring in. This percentage dictates how often they choose to stand their ground and maintain attacks instead of chasing the player around like a goon, though they will gather courage eventually in any case. Further, this defensive nature helps groups stick together and maintain a firing squad type of fashion, instead of just a bunch of chasing tails that shoot on occasion.
-Further, AI has become a little sharper at identifying rush attacks now. If the player closes distance heavily and they aren't using melee, they will do a bit of a dodge off to the side and maintain their attacks instead of just sitting there getting rushed. Further, if they're using melee and they're recovering from a swing, they'll also dodge between attacks to try and keep the player from point blanking them with whatever they choose.
In light of these rapid combat moves, we've seen some more additions to the cores of combat statistics. Here are some:
-The player's base ground speed has been increased by 1/8th, but now the amount of weight being carried can impair movement by up to 1/3, when not totally overencumbered.
-Enemies demonstrate higher base ground speed, and even MORE speed while sprinting. This means a player toting craploads of firepower has to WORK to be agile while toting all that firepower. Further, speed builds encourage lightweight build weapons and carrying less gear. We'll be adding housing eventually with player storage, so even if you cut down on current medkits to be speedy, you can have more in your possession at some point.
-Enemies now suffer encumbrance up to 50%, sometimes 66% including poison slow effects. Gear weight, armor level, physical conditioning, and poison/bleed effects can affect how much an NPC chugs along.
-Since everything happens faster and the player has less reaction time, all weapons now focus and unfocus aim 50% faster than before, AKA 3x with ducking in the picture and nearly 4 with proper parts on weapons. Combat has gone from a slower RPG shooter to a fast paced mess of various tactics and weapons going head to head. REALLY want a demo on this ASAP, but we'll see how well it works out.
Non-combat related notes:
-Further stability fixes. We're running out of things to stabilize, even in the nuttiest, most intensive conditions that tax how well all our new functions can co-exist. Once again, I emphasize 99.9% of the time, Hatchet runs flawlessly. It's that every 1/1000 we have to keep finding and improving. Currently, we're aware of 0 instabilities in the game... just how we like it.
-Players can now break down pickups and ammos at the workbench, instead of just weapons. This is a MASSIVE overhaul to the way decomposing items works. Intelligence is needed to really think out all the possibilities as it stands (like you can repurpose some medkit components into 2/3 of a standard shotgun munition from steel and plastic, or produce FMJ rounds from titanium lockpick heads!), but we're loving the increase in hands-on experience and fun things for players to think up to challenge the normal line of events for gear acquisition and resource management.
-A couple tinier bug fixes. Tiny stuff, really. Hardly worth noting, but yet here we stand acknowledging it anyways.
EDITS:
-Wicked tendonitis injury round 2. Gonna be out of commission for a bit, might do some light work.
-Produced blueprints for 2 and only 2 weapons unique to bandit factions, amongst their already stolen ones. Likely, their blueprints will be acquired from learning how to craft the weapons they're built from. Yay, open choices.
-Modified .50 Caliber rifle's damage yet again. Previous estimates placed a .50 doubled sniper round at about 25 damage or so, so we went with 13 for a one shot kill on double headshots. Now special munitions can bridge the gap for one shot kills against light targets, since the damage has been increased to a less-snipery damage calculation of 18.
-.50 Cal ammo costs have been doubled (again) now that the gun has monsterous damage output.
